


Family is Everything

by MercyGrim96



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: me getting over my issues with how season 2 ended, ratings will change as the story progresses, season two spoilers, small amounts of underage drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-04-26 22:24:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5022841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyGrim96/pseuds/MercyGrim96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Morty has to find a way to get Rick back before his family goes nuclear. It's going to take a lot of determination and maybe a bit of help from someone unexpected, but he is going to get his Grandfather back so his family can be whole again and everything can go back to the way it was; at least that's what he hopes.</p><p>(This is a continuation of Rick and Morty from after the end of season two.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> That ending gave me a lot of feels and I'm writing this to help cope with them. The story just needs to go on, I need to know what happens next, and so I'm writing this to help me get through this hiatus that the fandom is pretty much in. This is mainly going to focus on the family and how they are each dealing with Rick being gone, but don't worry they will get him back... hopefully.

Morty sat at the workbench in the garage and sighed as he took another sip of the flask that he had found a week ago. A week. It had been a week since the wedding, since Rick had turned himself in, since the Smith family had come back to earth minus one person. Not everyone was taking it very well, and by not everyone, everyone but Jerry was having a hard time.

Beth had taken up drinking way too much wine, no one could find her without a bottle in her hands, Morty had no idea how she even did her job when she was almost always drunk. Summer had taken the route of the depressed teen and decided to cut her hair with scissors and dye it black. She now only wore black clothes and listened to weird music while she lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling everyday. 

Then there was Morty; this whole situation was the worst on him. Without Rick taking him on crazy adventures all of the time Morty found that his life was quite dull and he really missed his grandfather. As much as Rick annoyed him and pissed him off on a daily basis, he was honestly Morty’s best friend, and without him around all Morty could do was sit around the garage and mess with Rick's stuff. He hoped to find a way to get Rick back, but he wasn’t sure of where to even start.

He decided to go inside the house for once and find something to eat, he dragged himself out of the workbench stool and opened the door to the house. Morty was met with the loud sounds of the bickering of his parents. Beth was yelling at Jerry in a very drunken and slurred tone to “get the fuck out of the house”, she had started to make Jerry sleep on the couch now because she had confided in Morty one night a day or so ago that she couldn’t stand to look Jerry in the eye anymore because he disgusted her.

Jerry hadn’t been the most supportive person since their return; it was obvious that he was over the moon with the fact that Rick was gone. He literally pranced around the house saying how lovely it was that nothing was exploding and nothing was trying to kill them. He said that the family was better off now, but Morty knew that it was really only Jerry that was better off while everyone else was just depressed. This wasn’t really living a happy life, only Jerry was happy. That coward.

Morty had really wised up this past week, he wasn’t as awkward and stuttery as he was over a week ago, the truth and reality of what his family really was was making him understand everything. And Morty thought he needed to become even smarter, he needed to man up, because he needed to get Rick back at all costs.

“Jerry I swear to god, just-just get the fuck out. Go live in the backyard or something like that, get a fucking shed and put a bed in there for all I care. I just think that it would be best for everyone in this house if you weren’t in it right now,” Beth angrily spat at Jerry as she took a swig of her wine. 

“Beth hunny, you’re not thinking rationally,” Jerry tried to reason with her and laugh it off, “Maybe if you put the wine down we can have a civil conversation about-“

“Jerry, this is me having a CIVIL conversation with you right now. And I think you need to get the hell out of my house.” She jabbed a finger at him and then pointed to the back door, “I’m not saying you can’t live on the property, I’m just saying you are no longer welcome inside this house when the kids an-and I are home. I think that’s being perfect-ly rational,” a few of her words slurred and she hiccupped. 

Before the argument could escalate any further Morty jumped into it, “Dad what mum is trying to say here is that you suck and we don’t want you here right now. This is a very emotional time for us and you just don’t seem to understand that. And if you can’t understand it at all, the pain we are feeling, then she’s right, it’s best if you just stay out of our way.”

Jerry and Beth looked at Morty, stunned. Even Summer, who was lying on the couch staring at the ceiling, looked over at them. 

“There you see Jerry, even Morty gets it,” Beth said triumphantly as she walked over to her son and slung an arm over his shoulder.

Jerry huffed, “Fine then, but you guys are going to regret this!” Jerry opened the door and slammed it on his way out.

Beth laughed and then hiccupped, “Great job Morty, I’m so proud of you for standing up to your idiot father,” she said as she leaned on him.

“That’s nice of you to say mum, but do you think that you could get off of me now? You’re really heavy,” Morty replied with a nervous laugh. She complied and left the room, probably to go drink alone in her bedroom. 

Morty grabbed a snack from the dwindling supply of food in the fridge, check that on his list of things to do this week because obviously no one else was going to see to it, and went back to the garage to continue his work. 

As he sat down in the silent room once again he took a sip from the flask, he was starting to get why Rick must have liked the stuff so much, it made him feel numb. Numb was something that he needed right now, numb was his life at the moment. This was all his life was ever going to be until he got his grandpa back, and who the hell knew how long that was going to take.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea if any of this chapter makes sense, but I found the way Morty is gonna save Rick! I just like the idea of Rick having more feelings than he lets on and just not knowing how to express them.

A few more days rolled by with Morty doing nothing but spending time in the garage, it was getting to the point where the mess was bothering him. At first he didn't have the heart to move anything because he wanted it all to be the way Rick left it when he came back, but now Morty was starting to realize that Rick might not come back unless he found a way in this jumbled up mess of stuff to bring him back home.

He got up off the stool and wandered around the small room, trying to pick a place to start, it was hard because Rick wasn't really that into cleaning things so most of the room had a lot of random stuff lying around. He finally settled on the shelving on the side wall next to the door. nothing was really a mess per-say, things were just a bit scattered around.

Morty began with the bottom shelves because he could reach them. various substances in cases and boxes of parts were down there, nothing new to his eyes. Also he moved up the shelves he became too short to reach some of them so he grabbed a stepping stool from the kitchen. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary until he go to the top shelf, one he had never seen the contents of because he was too short, and as he moved a container full of objects he found an old notebook underneath.

On the notebook there was a messy scrawl of words that Morty made out to say, "Rick's Journal". Rick had a private journal! No way, this was Rick, master of not expressing real feelings.

Too curious to pass this opportunity up Morty took the notebook, brushed off the thin layer of dust on the spine that had been exposed, and got down off the stepping stool to investigate his new find. Maybe this journal had the information Morty needed to help Rick. He sat down at the desk and cracked open to the first page.

**First entry in this stupid journal, my wife is ridiculous if she thinks this writing in a journal will help anything. I’m a man of science, not a writer. Oh well if it pleases her I guess I’ll give it a shot it can’t be too bad, can it? I mean I don’t have to write about my feelings like wuss, I can just write about my scientific discoveries, that’s a thing that scientists do right? Well I hope so, from now on I’ll crack this open and pretend to write about my feelings and my hopes and dreams and all that bullshit, and instead keep track of all my studies and she’ll be none the wiser! I truly am a genius.**

Wow this was a really old journal! Rick is still talking about his wife, Morty's grandmother, whom he's sadly never met. Rick never talked about her, neither did Morty's mother. Maybe this was more than just a way to find out how to save Rick, maybe he could learn a little bit about him. That wasn't snooping right? No definitely not, Morty needed to read all of this until he found what he was looking for. Morty figured that the best way to get to Rick would be to make a portal gun. The one Rick used to carry around was lost at the wedding so Morty had to make his own. Sadly he had no idea how, now he kind of wished he would have taken time to take Rick up on his many offers to teach him science. Oh well he would just have to figure it out for himself.

Morty sat at the desk for hours reading Rick's journal, this was the most amazing thing in the world. Rick said that he wasn't going to fill this thing with his feelings, but that was a lie, there was so much information in here about Rick that Morty had never known. Rick was brilliant of course, he had come up with so many amazing inventions over the time, but what was most interesting to Morty was when Rick talked about his wife.

He said that she was way too smart, that she saw right through him. It was sad for Morty to read all the parts about how their marriage was slowly failing. It reminded him of his parents and how their marriage would probably soon be over as well. Still if was nice to find out more about his grandmother.

She was a scientist just like Rick, but she was a also a psychologist, which apparently really annoyed Rick to no end because she would always be analyzing him. It wasn't the reason their marriage was not going well though, there were much more deeper reasons than that. Morty felt that he was poking too much into Rick's personal life though so he decided to skip the personal feelings parts and focus on the science.

He was about ten pages into the journal when Beth opened the door to the garage and came in.

"What do you got there Morty," she asked, Morty took note that her voice didn't sound slurred at the moment so that meant she hadn't started drinking yet. She pulled up a stool and sat next to Morty, who quickly hid the flask that was next to him. He didn't want his mother to take it away, it was Rick's not hers, and it was the only thing that made Morty feel better, he needed to feel a bit numb.

"I decided to clean up the place a bit, thought maybe it would help me figure things out, help me find a way to get Rick back, and I found this journal on the top shelf. I think it's Rick's from when he was still with grandma."

Beth's eyes widened, "Morty can I see that?"

"Sure." He handed her the journal.

She flipped through the pages carefully, "I think I remember this thing. He used to write in it when I was little. I never knew what he wrote though."

"Mum, what was Rick like back then?"

She looked back to Morty, "Well he honestly hasn't changed much. other than the fact that he's become less selfish I guess. I think he finally started to settle down and feel like family... I always wondered why he left back then, could never wrap my head around it all, but now I think I know. I don't think he felt like he belonged, like a family just wasn't right for him. I really made me sad back then, thinking that I wasn't important to him, but I think I was, he just didn't know how to express it. And now, I think with what he's done he finally found a way. Deep down I always thought he would leave again, but I never knew it would be like this."

Morty looked down at the flask he was holding under the table, "I think you did mean a whole lot to him mum, Rick was never good at expressing his feelings, it just wasn't him. Maybe he felt that leaving back then was what was best for you? He never made the best choices in life when it came to safety, and he's a very selfish person, but I really don't think he means to be that way. It's hard for people to change who they are for someone else. He just wasn't ready to change who he was back then, he didn't know how to change, but he's learning now."

Beth smiled at him and ruffled his hair, "Ya know Morty, you're becoming quiet a little genius, I think you're going to be even smarter than you are now when you grow up. I honestly thought you were going to be a lot like Jerry, " she said his name with a grimace, "But I was wrong, there is more Sanchez in you than Smith. Well I guess I'll leave you to your work." She got up with a sigh, "A certain bottle is calling my name."

Morty felt the weight of the flask in his hands and he couldn't wipe the smile off of his face.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ohhh now we get to talk to emo/goth Summer, won't this be fun!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that Summer should make an appearance because she hasn't said a word yet and she's a pretty important character in Rick & Morty, so here is some emo Summer everyone, enjoy. (Also I know this took me a while, but im a college student, so yeah things take me a while sometimes.)

**Bird Person is such a great guy, so is Squwanchy of course, they just really get me as a person. Also on another note, so I don't talk about my 'feelings' too much, this portal gun is the best thing ever. It really wasn't that hard to build, but you haveta do it right and not fuck anything up in the process because these things are very delicate.**

Morty felt a pang of sadness when he read the beginning of this entry. He recalled his conversation with Bird Person not too long ago, all of those pictures on Bird person's walls of him and Rick hanging out, they really were the best of friends. Bird Person was gone now and Morty felt guilty that he never talked about it with Rick, he wondered what the scientist would say if they could talk about it; it must have been hard on Rick, but he didn't show it at all. 

The rest of this entry was also interesting info about the portal gun, something that Morty wanted to know all about, that gun would be Ricks savior. 

As he flipped through the pages to find more information about the portal gun he picked up the flask that was on the side of the desk, about to take a swig because sips weren't really doing it for him anymore, when the door to the garage opened.

Before he could fumble around to hide it he heard a voice comment on the container, "Wow Morty, drinking like Grandpa Rick, that's pretty hardcore." Morty breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of Summers voice.

She approached the table clad in her new black clothes, the girl had completely changed since the day Rick was arrested. Summer now wore only black clothes and black make-up and she had stopped hanging out with her friends at school, she was more in favour of keeping to herself; honestly he was surprised to see her out and about. 

"What brings you here Summer?"

She was in the middle of looking intently at a random experiment, "Oh I don't know Morty, maybe for nostalgia's sake." He gave her a suspicious glance.

"You've never been one for nostalgia, what do you really want?"

"What? Can't a big sister hangout with her little brother with no ulterior motives?"He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Fine. If you must know, I've been sent in here by dad to spy on you." She said nonchalantly.

"What! Summer, why are you talking to him?"

She sighed, "He makes me feed him scraps of food through the window when he sees me in the kitchen. It's not like I'm actually going to spy on you Morty, dads an idiot if he thinks I'd ever do what he says, I just had to make it look like I was." 

"Summer why would you even give him food, he's not worth it. He's the reason Rick is gone, it's because if his big mouth that Rick left," Morty said angrily. 

"Yeah Morty I know that, but haven't you ever heard the whole saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Dad is sort of our enemy now, so I'm going to be  _nice_ to him when I see him and no one else is around because I might need something from him someday," Summer retorted with an almost emotionless voice. That's how her voice has been since they had gotten back. Morty figured that she was just holding in all of her emotions because she didn't want to talk to anyone about them, but still he had to admit that what she had just said was kind of true.

"You're kind of turning into a very different person Summer, like really different. You don't talk to your friends anymore, you don't really talk to anyone anymore... Hell I'm surprised that you're talking to me right now. You're really changing into a different person...But I have to admit that what you just said was pretty smart," Morty was expecting her usual look of triumph at being smarter than him, but all he got was her continuous, void of emotion face.

"Well I guess I've been in here long enough for our idiot father to think I have been spying on you for real, I'll leave you to your devices," She turned around to leave, but Morty grabbed her sleeve before she could walk away.

"Wait Summer, I was wondering... Do you want to help me in my quest to get Rick back?"

Summer actually gave him a wide-eyed look, he could see how she was feeling for once, she looked sad.

"No Morty, I ah...I think this is something only you can do, and I suck at this science stuff," Morty looked down at the ground and let her arm go then she quickly added, "But who knows, maybe you will find some unexpected help." She offered him a small smile as she quickly walked out of the room.

Morty hoped that Summer was right, he didn't know if he could go at this all alone anymore, it was really starting to take its toll.

 


	4. Morty Goes Down the Rabbit hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morty has one crazy dream....yeah things are about to get weird up in here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So um I'm tryin out the new thing of adding titles to chapters and whatnot, just bare with me here if the chapter titles seem a little weird haha. Also I know its been a long time since I updated this story, but I was reallllly busy with trying to pass my physics class(I did pass!), but now I'm back and in fanfic writing mode! Also if you read my Homestuck fanfics expect more in that front very soon! 
> 
> Also I have no idea why I wrote this weird dream chapter, but just bare with me here, this is Rick and Morty, weird shit happens all the time. (This is only part one, who knows what Morty will find next! Maybe, just many he well get the answers he needs, dang those answers are some good runners tho!)

Morty decided to call it a night once his phone told him it was past 2 am, wow did no one in this house care when he went to bed? 

He took the journal, marked his page, and carried it up stairs with him. He was not risking anyone else finding it, especially his annoying dad. He placed it under his pillow and got into bed. Morty spent at least another half-hour staring at the ceiling, after all he had a lot on his mind.

At around 2:30 he was finally taken by sleep...

"Do you know what you're doing?" Morty heard a voice call from a distance. He tried to look around, but everything was black.

"Do you know what path you're heading down?" There was that voice again, but this time it was getting closer.

"Umm...May I ask who's there," Morty called out to the voice.

"So you don't know? Hmmm very interesting." Now that voice was getting too close for comfort.

"Well I must inform you my good fellow that for one to not know what they are doing and were they are going is absurd. Down right dastardly in fact. Good thing you showed up here, yes yes, good thing indeed."

Morty heard a clap and suddenly he was shrouded in light. He rapidly blinked his eyes to adjust, then scanned the room for the person who was just talking to him.

"You need answers don't you," The voice asked, and Morty nodded as he continued to look for the person. "Well I'm glad to tell you that you've come to the right place, answers are all you will find here, lots of answers, all the answers!" Morty couldn't find this person, it was starting to disturb him that he couldn't find the voice. He then heard a tapping noise from across the room. "Well well, it's time for you to get going don't you think? Answers are funny in the way that they really do not like to be kept waiting. I bet that if you don't hurry along they'll sprout some legs and run away!"The voice giggled.

Morty pinpointed the tapping noise to a door in the center of the room, there was nothing behind it, so what would it even do? He stood up and walked to the door. As he twisted and pulled on the knob the door flew open, literally it flew, right off it's hinges and deflated in the corner of the room. Where the hell was he?!

"Better get a move on good fellow, else the answers will be half way to nowhere before you even start looking!" The voice said. Not wanting to say and find out who exactly was there Morty walked through the door into whatever lie ahead.

~~~

Morty found himself in a very strange place, a humongous forest; but at the same time it wasn't a forest. After closer inspection of the trees were actually made of paper, and written all over the paper were equations, formulas, and notes. They were pages from Ricks journal! This was getting really weird. Morty decided that curiosity was getting the better of him, so he followed the path of the forrest floor.

He had been walking for a few minutes when in the distance ahead of him he heard someone humming. Could it be the voice from before? No, that voice was lower in pitch than the humming. This sounded like a girl's voice. Well he didn't have anything else to do so he decided to follow the humming.

It had to have been a few more minutes of following the voice before he noticed that the ground was filling up with smoke, so badly that he started coughing. When he found the source of the smoke, there was a woman sitting on a giant mushroom. How peculiar, a mushroom in a forest full of trees.

"Hey you," Morty yelled up at the woman.

"Hey who," she replied with a question as she took another puff, a cloud of smoke surrounded them and Morty coughed again.

"You, the lady with the smoke," Morty answered back.

"Who me?"

"Yes you, who else would it be, you're the only lady here with that pipe.

The woman laughed, "I suppose that I am. And what is it that you want?"

"I wanted to ask you to stop smoking that, it's fogging up the forest."

"Oh, is that so," she said as she took another puff.

"Yes, now if you don't mind, could you please stop," Morty asked with a cough.

"Fine, fine I guess I can," she said as she put the pipe down, and then she did the craziest thing, she sucked in all the smoke around them and then burped. "Do excuse my manners boy."

"It's ok I guess- Wait! Mum?!" Now that he could see her, the women gave a striking resemblance to his mother, aside from the blue hair that was so long it fell off the mushroom and onto the forrest floor, and the antenna that stuck out of her head. 

"Mum? Who is this...mum... that you speak of. I am not mum, my name is Chloriphie, Chloriphie the human caterpillar." She said with a bow of her head. "And how may I be of service to you my good boy? I assume that you are here for the answers. Chess said something about answers..." Chloriphie mumbled the last part under her breath.

"Answers? Oh Um, yeah answers, the voice said something about answers! Do you know anything about that?"

"Well, let me see...No, afraid not. I don't _have_ your answers here." Chloriphie shrugged. She put an emphasis on the word have and Morty noticed. 

"Did they by any chance walk away? The voice said that they might do that..."

"Now that you say that, I think I did see something walk past me earlier."

"What direction did they go in?"

"Follow the path like you have been, they should be somewhere on it," she shrugged again. "But I must warn you, I don't really have to, but it would be rude not to and I am not for being rude don't you know. Some creatures that live in this place aren't as nice as I, some are bread of a foul nature...Good luck with that!" 

Chloriphie waved good-bye and picked up her pipe once again. Morty scrammed before he had to inhale anymore of those toxic chemicals, who knew what human caterpillars smoked.

~~~

Not three minutes later and he heard that humming again, and just as he came to a fork in the road, but this time the humming was getting closer. So close that it might just be right above his head. Morty looked up only to find a grinning girl, his sister Summer! But she wan't really Summer, she couldn't be. This girl had cat ears and a tail, and some paws to boot! 

"Hello human boy," the grinning girl said from up in the tree. 

"Hello? And who might you be?"

"My name is Chess! It's so interesting to meet you, there's been talk about you being here, talk in the Kings court. That's not very good you know, you don't want the King to take a liking to you here," Chess said with a purr.

"Who's the King?"

"Who's the King you ask? Well that is a crazy story right there," she replied with a laugh as she absentmindedly licked her paw and rubbed her face with it. "Well the King is the King of course, it comes with the title. He is the ruler of this land, and sadly he is as mad as they come. Which is pretty much the norm around here, we're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad, that caterpillar is mad, it's a world of whimsy my dear friend." Chess's grin grew even bigger.

"Well, I'd rather not be surrounded by mad people, but I'm pretty used to it honestly. Anyways, I need to ask you something..."

"Ask away, I have all day," she snickered.

"Well ya see, I'm looking for some answers and the caterpillar said that they went this way, but I see that there are two paths in front of me..." Morty motioned in the direction of the paths. "Which road I should take?"

"Well that all depends on where you want to go. Where do you want to go?"

"Honestly I don't know... I just want to find my answers."

"Well if you don't know, then it doesn't matter now does it? My motto has always been that if you really don't know where you're going, then any road will take you there."

"But, didn't you see my answers walk by?"

Chess sighed, "Do you really need me to spell it out for you? You're pretty daft, you know that right? I meant that it doesn't matter because all roads inevitably lead to the same place."

Morty looked at the two paths in front of him, "But it would be easier if you would just tell me what one to take," he said as he looked back up at the tree, but the cat girl was already gone.

"Well I guess I'll just go with my gut then," Morty said out loud to himself as he picked the path to the right.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are loved! They keep me writing. :)


	5. Morty in Wonderland....wtf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So Morty is kind of in a really weird version of Wonderland now..... Man this poor guy is having a weird dream...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guys I got a comment about the wonderland stuff, I guess it is a bit weird, but if you could just bare with me her for this next chapter I swear it will all start to make sense. I really just needed an idea to bounce off of because I was kind of stuck with what to do next, and I had just re watched an Alice in Wonderland movie, and I was all like 'Morty in Wonderland' let's do it! 
> 
> My mind is realllllly muddled up right now, I have a lot on it, and it was really fun to write something that makes me so happy, I could change it if it's too weird for you guys, but I really don't want to.....

Morty continued his walk until he came up to a small clearing in the middle of the woods. There was a topsy-tervy house, and in front of the house three tables were strewn out. On top of said tables were scads and scads of lab equipment, like the stuff in Ricks lab. Seeing all of this brought back pings of distant memories, Morty took a seat on one of the tree stumps near the tables to take a break.

"You look so depressed sitting there all alone," Said a voice from behind him, it was Chess. Morty turned to see her sitting on a tree branch, her tail was lightly swishing back and forth as she kicked her legs. Her grin was as wide as ever, Morty could even see the points on her teeth; they reminded him of a sharks.

"What is this place," Morty asked her.

"Why this my dear friend, is the Mad Scientist's house," She purred in answer.

"Mad Scientist....Well then where is he?"

Chess's grin shrunk a little as she averted her eyes, her leg swinging stopped and her tail went limp, "That, I'm afraid is the sad thing. He just up and left one day..."

Morty looked at her with sympathy. 

"He was my friend I'll have you know," Chess began, "A brilliant man, with a terrible addiction to tea. He was the one who wrote all of the equations and formulas on these trees," She said as she motioned around her, "Said it was easier for him to think that way, I just think it was because he was mad. But still he was the man who knew how to fix every problem, grant it most of them he caused to begin with. That's besides the point though, he had this way of thinking that no one else could muster, and he believed that everyone in this world had the power to dream, even though we don't sleep here. I will never forget his optimism."

"You talk about him like he's already dead...Is he dead?"

"He might as well be, that nasty King, he did it. I swear he was the reason the Mad Scientist left! I really do not care for that King, the worst thing that has ever happened to this world if you ask me," Chess said matter-of-factly. "Twill be a good day when he's gone, then maybe the Scientist will come back and grace us with his optimism once again, and bring life back to our land, and smiles back to our people. No one knows how to smile these days...."

"But you're smiling right now," Morty said.

Chess laughed and grinned down at him, "Oh dear boy, a smile and a grin are two very different things, this is how my face has always been, I know not what a smile feels like."

"That seems like a pretty sad life to me....."

The cat-girl's grin grew, "It's not so bad, I quite like my grin, the Scientist said it was what made me unique. He really was a good friend of mine, even when he was being a complete imbecile," Chess sighed, "Oh well, it does not do well to dwell on the past, for only the future holds our tomorrow. I'm afraid I must be off now, there is some business that I have to attend to. Maybe we will meet again."

Before Morty could say anything she disappeared in a cloud of fog. 

~~~

After Chess had left Morty got up and continued to walk aimlessly, he should have tried to ask for directions again because he had an idea of where he wanted to go next; the King's castle. That had to be where his answers were, no doubt about it. 

As he was walking Morty thought about what Chess had said, The Mad Scientist sounded a lot like Rick, he figured that it had to be Rick since this world had obviously based it's characters off of people in Morty's life. And Morty had a good guess as to whom the King was.

~~~

It took him a while to come across the castle, a lot of walking and retracing his steps. This world was confusing, very confusing, sometimes left was right and right was left, that kind of confusing. 

The castle itself was very striking, made of old stone and standing many stories high. A small moat surrounded the tall walls around the perimeter of the castle. Morty made his way to the front were there was a large drawbridge that was currently open. He tentatively walked across the drawbridge and onto the grounds of the castle. 

The grounds were very well kept, befitting for a King Morty supposed. There was a small garden off to the right side of the castle, and off to the left there was a decent sided building that Morty assumed was for the castle servants and guards, though he didn't currently see any of them standing around; that was weird.

Suddenly Morty heard a rustling in one of the bushes next to the castle's large front doors, he saw a small shadow dash out and disappear into the castle. Could those be his answers? His pace quickened as he made his way to the intimidating doors and opened one very slowly. 

Inside the rooms seemed almost empty, the walls were bare, and there were very few lights. It felt as if no one had been here for a very long time, Morty observed as he walked through the main hall. The shadow made a dash for the big door at the end of the main hall so Morty followed.

As he opened the door light started to pour out, maybe there was someone in here? He made his way into the room, the throne room.

"Who goes there," called a male voice from the other side of the room."

"My name is Morty and I'm looking for may answers! Have you seen them? They came into this room." Morty walked up to the man who had called out. "I'm going to guess that you are the King?"

"Well you would be correct," the man said. Morty stared in shock, the King looked like his father Jerry, aside from the beard on his face, and no way in hell could he ever see Jerry in a place of power, these poor people, Chess was right, they were screwed. 

"Why did you make the Mad Scientist leave!" Morty blurted out by accident and then covered his mouth.

"That man was a fool! The things that he put my people through, he destroyed the land time and time again! He is a crazy man, a mad man! And I do not condone that type of behaviour in my kingdom," the King answered in a very angry tone.

"What did he ever do to you to make you so angry! I've been told nothing but nice things about this man, sure he was mad, but everyone here is mad, the whole freaking world is is mad!" Morty yelled back at him, his timidness from before gone.

"The last invention that the Scientist was about to make would have completely torn our world to shreds, boy you do not have the right to speak of a man whom you have never met."

"His last invention?"

"Yes," the King replied, he pulled out a piece of paper from his robes and handed it to Morty. "This is the answer that you have so desperately been looking for, but you would be foolish to use it, very foolish. In fact I don't think you should ever use it."

"Well it's too bad that you aren't the boss of me," Morty spat back at him after he took the paper from the King's hand. He looked down, it was the directions to build the portal gun! Holy hell! What he's been looking for all along. 

"You know I think you're wrong about him, the Mad Scientist. A good acquaintance of mine said that he brought light to this land, so I do hope you forgive him for whatever he's done in the past. I think I'll be taking my leave now, and I can't say it was nice to meet you."

"You do as you wish I suppose, but I only do what I think is best for my kingdom, I don't see how that makes me a bad person," the King said smugly.

"Maybe you should check around every once and a while to see if your people are happy, that's what a good King does, they put the happiness of their people before them," Morty said and before the King could retort he left.

Like literally Morty left, he was awake.

"Hey Morty, it's time for school," his mother says as she pokes him to wake him up.

What a weird dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys! Kudos and comments are loved, they keep me motivated!! :) and Happy Yule everyone! :D

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, comments and kudos are loved!(they keep me motivated to write more faster!) Tell me what yall think, and what you might want to happen next.


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